1. Field of the Invention
The current invention relates to a mechanism that enables wheels attached to luggage or other such items to be retracted, thus saving space when not in use.
The invention allows wheels to be attached to an item and used as normal, often in conjunction with a handle, for making the movement of bulky items easier. The invention then enables the user to easily retract the wheels so they no longer protrude from the item, allowing it to be easily and compactly stored.
2. Description of the Related Art
Over recent years with the increase in awareness of risks associated with lifting and carrying heavy or bulky items, more suitcases and other such items are manufactured with integrated wheels. Although not always, these wheels usually protrude from a bottom edge of the item with a handle provided on a top edge to rock the item onto the wheels and pull it along.
As such, the wheels often end up wasting a disproportionate amount of space compared to their size when the item is in need of being stored either in a confined space (such as an overhead locker on an aeroplane) or when a large number are being stored together (for example supply transportation). This makes the prospect of being able to retract the wheels into the item to reduce the amount of space wasted very attractive to producers and designers, as they would then be able to utilise more of the space taken up by the item.
Further, significant time, effort and therefore expense is put in to the aesthetics of travel luggage. There is little scope for modifying the appearance of wheels attached to these items of luggage, and as such, the aesthetics of most travel luggage items is affected by the addition of clunky, bland and often dirty wheels. It would thus be desirable for the wheels to be concealed when not in use, thus improving the appearance of the luggage, and giving designers more freedom during the design stage.
The problem is that as of yet there has not been a satisfactory design to achieve this goal. Many devices enable the retraction of wheels using a variety of mechanisms. These mechanisms are often located adjacent to the wheel, and hence close to the ground. This leads to problems with the ingress of dirt and water from the floor into the mechanism which can cause wear, increased stiction and ultimately premature failure.
Such mechanisms also therefore often require the user to directly interact with the wheels. This is both awkward and time consuming as users are forced to upend their luggage or other item and manually retract the wheels. In certain situations this is undesirable as the user may be in a rush, may be in a confined space, for example on an aeroplane, the bottom of the item may be dirty or wet or it may simply be too heavy to lift and manoeuvre
Another factor and important limitation on the durability and robustness of current solutions is the complexity of the design; quite often such devices comprise a number of moving parts, hinges and other dynamic components such as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,575,109, the whole contents of which are incorporated by reference. Generally, the higher the number of components and connections the less robust and durable the design.
Further, current retraction mechanism designs often take up a large amount of space, this then either protrudes from the luggage or item, making it quite unwieldy, or is located inside the luggage or item, thus detracting from the space for the luggage or item itself. This negates the benefit of having a method to retract the wheels to save space.